One Major Retail Chain Is Rethinking Its Self-Checkout System … Here’s Why

You might have heard that discount retailers Family Dollar and Dollar Tree are planning to close hundreds of stores. But another “dollar” chain is planning to add even more employees.

Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos recently revealed that the company is shifting away from the self-checkout model that has become more prevalent over the past several years.

Here’s what he said

Nearly three-fourths of the roughly 20,000 stores Dollar General currently operates has at least some kiosks that allow customers to scan their own purchases. From the perspective of shoppers, the reception to self-checkout options has been mixed — but Vasos isn’t implementing this new strategy in response to complaints from customers.

Instead, he said that thousands of stores will see a significant scale-back in self-checkout stands in order to curb shoplifting.

“We believe there is truly no substitute for an employee presence at the front end of the store to greet customers and provide excellent customer service, including at checkout.”

How things will change

Dollar General will roll out its new strategy based on the rate of theft in specific stores. It’s expected to look a little something like this:

• About 300 stores will no longer have any self-checkout options
• Another 9,000 will transition to “assisted-checkout” stands during busy periods
• The remaining stores will limit self-checkout purchases to just five items at a time

At those locations with a new hybrid model, Vasos said the intention is “to drive traffic first to our staffed registers, with assisted-checkout options available as second or third options to reduce lines during high-volume times.”

He said analysis by an artificial intelligence program helped identify self-checkout as a factor in the shoplifting spike and even suggested assisted-checkout as a method for reversing the trend.

Chris Agee March 15th, 2024

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